


Two Steps To Paradise

by hearthobi



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Background Relationships, Demi!Boy Armin, Disabled Eren, Domestic, Dyslexia, Dyslexic Eren, Fluff, Heterochromanic Eren, Homosexual Eren, Jean/Hitch Kirschstein Twins AU, Light Angst, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POC Eren, Pansexual Jean, Past Eren/Reiner, Piercings, Slice of Life, Taiwanese Mikasa, Trans Armin, Trans Hange, University AU, disabled AU, romcom
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-29
Updated: 2015-01-29
Packaged: 2018-03-09 08:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3243383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearthobi/pseuds/hearthobi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Learning the language of love, do nude modelling, falling asleep in a ball pit, headaches from dyslexic eyes, lots of gay jokes from Ymir and Reiner, helping scared demiboy Armin cope with his anxiety, dressing up as Nightmare Before Christmas at a Halloween party, listening to Tame Impala and K-pop and laugh a copious amount with great friends.</p><p>Eren had to amputate one of his legs, but he doesn’t let that define him! With long pants and an untrained eye you wouldn’t even know, so Eren live the university life as all the other freshmen at Trost University.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two Steps To Paradise

**Author's Note:**

> A EreJean fic where they DON’T start out as enemies, I was tired of those, why does everyone want them to fight? ;__;  
> Don’t worry, they’ll still argue as canon though. 
> 
> But instead of building their relationship on sexual frustration and hate, have these two young men full of love and cutesy and dorky adventures. Such happiness!  
> But don’t let that fluffiness fool ya~

“I’m going to miss you, a lot.”  
“Yeah, who’s gonna cook for you now when I leave, how will you survive on only instant ramen?” Mikasa says in a sarcastic tone.  
“Shut up, I can cook and you know it. Can we be serious here, I’m not going to get to see you for almost a year?”

Eren and Mikasa stand at the 5th Gate at Shinganshina Airport with university waiting for them in less than two weeks away. Mikasa got accepted to a prestigious university in Japan where she’ll study Biotechnology, she recently got in touch with some of her biological Taiwanese family and decided to go live with them in their home in Japan. It was a huge step, it’s scary not knowing what’s out there in the world, but that only made her want to go even more. Eren knew she didn’t want to get stuck in the little town they called home; she wanted to travel, to see the world.

“I’m sorry, of course. I still can’t believe I’m going away, I think that’s why I’m joking about it, it’s easier to deal with y’know.”  
“You’re gonna be fine, and me too. I’ve got Armin and Annie looking out for me, and you’ll finally get to meet your biological family? And we can Skype whenever, okay?”  
“Yeah okay, you’re right.”  
“It’ll be fine. Empty without you, but I’ll manage.”  
“I’m gonna to miss you too, “ Mikasa says and fling her arms around Eren’s neck, and they stand like that until the voice in the speakers tells them it’s time to board the plane.

It got awfully quiet at the gate when Mikasa and her fellow passengers boarded, but that might also have been the sense of loss that made Eren deaf to his busy surroundings. He stayed until he saw the plane lose touch with the ground before he turned around and left. When he made it out the doors he picked up his phone.

“Eren?”  
“She’s on the flight.”  
“Want me to pick you up?”  
“Nah, it’s okay, I’ll take a taxi.”  
“Okay, see you in 20?”  
“Yeah, bye Armin.”  
“Bye.”

-

“She’s been gone for 3 hours, you’ve been apart much longer than that, what’s with the sad face?”  
“I know for how long she’s been gone, Annie! It’s not about that!”  
They sit on a lonely couch in Eren’s apartment, Eren in the corner of it with his knees tucked under his chin and Annie beside with a comforting hand on his shoulder.  
“Then tell us, you look like you’re ready to kill yourself on the spot,” Armin walks in, carrying a tray with three cups of tea and sit down next to Annie on the couch.  
“It’s just- like, I don’t actually miss her right now, but I’m so aware of how long she’ll be gone that it hurts even though she’s only been gone for 3 hours!”

Eren looks around the now empty apartment. The naked walls, the last boxes that were yet to be put in the truck downstairs, the little cracks and marks Mikasa and Eren, well, mostly Eren, had left over the years of living there. With Mikasa going to Japan, and Eren leaving Shiganshina they had to get rid of the apartment, they didn’t have the money to keep it, so it was for the best. But they’ve had some pretty fun memories here, and some sad ones as well. Hiding from social workers took a lot of work to pull off but they had managed. They both got two jobs each on top of school at the age of 15; they got food on the table, roof over their heads, money to pay the bills with _and_ made it through school, all on their own. It had been hard on both of them getting abandoned by their parents with only a note saying;

> _
> 
> “We’re sorry, we had to leave. We can’t care for you anymore, there’s no money left. We wish you best of luck. Please find us in the future. – Love Mom & Dad”
> 
> _

Neither Mikasa nor Eren no longer found love for their parents in their hearts anymore, what they had done almost had them dying on the street and there were no apology in the world that could replace that hatred. 

Eren was dragged out of his thoughts when Armin let out a loud, drawn-out yawn.  
“Tired?” Eren ask and take a last sip of the hot liquid.  
“Yeah, but not without reason,” Armin reply and nod his head out in the empty space that was the apartment. “Only the last 5 boxes, the couch and the bed left now.”  
“And the plants” Annie adds and stand up, collecting their cups and walks into the kitchen to wash them.  
“And the plants yes.” Armin nod and turns his head to focus on Eren. “Mind if I sleep here?”  
“You know I don’t.” Eren smiles softly. “Annie you staying too? It’s kinda late?”  
“Don’t think I can take care of myself, do you?” comes the answer when she appear from the kitchen.  
“I have no doubt in my mind that you could beat up anyone on this planet using only your pinkie, just asking if you’d rather go outside and go home or stay here and sleep in a warm bed?” Eren casts a tired but toothy smile toward Annie.  
“Okay, you got me there.”

And that was that, they all went to bed on Eren’s king-sized mattress with Armin in the middle with his face snuggled into Eren’s back and Annie’s arm swung around Armin’s torso. They’ve been friends for years but sleepovers like this weren’t that usual, so this was nice. Eren thought about how lucky he was, friends that wanted to attend the same university as you and therefore following you there wasn’t a very common story, he felt very lucky thinking about all the people who had to leave all their friends and family behind in the next 2 weeks. 

From all three of them being exhausted from the day you could hear snoring and heavy sleeping from them all within 10 minutes.

-

“Thanks for helping me, I couldn’t have done it without you. Literally. “ Eren says and makes an obvious nod down to his prosthetic leg. “I’d buy a better one if I had the money, one that could do heavy lifts.”  
“No you wouldn’t, you would buy a leg that you could run with,” Armin says jokingly and continues down the stairs with the last plant, but Eren knew he’s right, if he had the money he would totally spend it so he finally could run again.

With a deep sigh in a weird mixture of sadness and relief Eren locks the apartment door most likely for the last time.

Armin and Eren dropped Annie off at Bertl’s place, then continued to the local second-hand store to leave the truck with his and Mikasa’s belongings in and then took the bus to where Armin and his grandfather lived. They had a good laugh with Mr. Arlert when they told the old man about the store-owners’ faces when they told them that there was a truck outside with an apartment’s worth of boxes in that they wanted to donate. Eren and Mikasa would have sold the things off for extra money but the time and energy just wasn’t there, Mikasa had had to work extra shifts to be able to afford her flight and Eren had to study extra hard at the end of the school year to not lose his scholarship to university. They had their priorities, and as Mr Arlert said, now some broke person will be able to afford furniture to a reasonable price and probably be very happy to afford more food on the table that week. 

Eren had everything he needed for university already packed at Armin’s place and a week later the day came when it was time to travel to Trost, everyone together in Reiner’s big velvet blue van. Armin and Eren were the last stop so they all had to help to get the doors closed on the now well-stuffed car. 

Before leaving Eren made sure to thank Mr Arlert for letting him stay at their place for such a long time.  
“No need to thank me, son, you’re always welcome here,” came the warm reply. “Just look after Armin for me when you’re away,” he demanded jokingly.  
“I’m fairly sure it’s going to be Armin looking out for me to be honest, “ Eren laughed and turned to walk to the car, leaving Armin alone to say his goodbye, 4 months is a long time to be away from such a close family member after all, Eren more than anyone knew this.

When a red-eyed Armin gets seated with the others, everybody is respectfully quiet, waiting for some sort of reassurance.  
“Just go,” Armin mumbles quietly and Reiner presses the gas pedal and drive out of the neighbourhood and out on the highway towards Trost.  
“Eren, I think I know how you feel now,” Armin says and Eren take his hand in his and squeeze it lightly.

**Author's Note:**

> This was a short first taste of my new fic, I hope it was to your enjoyment!
> 
> I think there'll be about 10+ chapters if you want something to look forward to, I hope to update it somewhat regularly from now on! I promise to do my very best ^__^
> 
> //psst. i've written a lot of fanfiction but this is actually the first one i've ever posted! please be nice uwu//
> 
> ***
> 
> ps. you can find me here; araminarlert.tumblr.com & oo-dy.tumblr.com ds.


End file.
